Kinnate Biopharma Inc. has added two new internally developed next-generation development candidates to its targeted oncology pipeline, a brain-penetrant mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitor and a highly selective hepatocyte growth factor receptor gene (c-Met) inhibitor.
Tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2 (TROP2) is a promising therapeutic target due to its high expression observed in several solid tumors. Investigators from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. have reported preclinical data on the anti-TROP2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) SHR-A1921 for the potential treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s PARP inhibitor, senaparib (JS-109/IMP4297), met the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in a phase III ovarian cancer study, according to a prespecified interim analysis.
The most comprehensive study to date of how lung cancer evolves in response to selection pressures indicates the genetic profile at diagnosis can be used to predict how a tumor is likely to progress, opening up new prospects for personalized medicine and potential therapeutic targets. The data were generated in Tracerx (Tracking cancer evolution through therapy), a £14 million (US$17.4 million) study funded by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) with the aim of defining how clonal heterogeneity of tumor cells affects the risk of recurrence and survival.
Immutep Ltd.’s lead immunotherapy candidate, eftilagimod (IMP-321, efti), plus pembrolizumab reverted previous resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 therapy in part B of the TACTI-002 phase II trial in second-line metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients refractory to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy.
Scorpion Therapeutics Inc. has named STX-241 as its next development candidate. STX-241 is an orally bioavailable, highly selective, central nervous system (CNS)-penetrant, fourth-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) designed to inhibit C797S mutations with a co-occurring EGFR exon 19 deletion or exon 21 mutation (double mutant) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has received FDA clearance of its IND for a phase I trial of its antibody-drug conjugate CPO-301 for the treatment of advanced lung cancer with alterations in the EGFR gene or EGFR over-expression.